You have a limited budget of $2,000 (US). Do you buy links or create / seed content?
-
We have a client who is being told by their incumbent supplier that they should renew their annual contract to buy links on 4 domains by their incumbent SEO agency. It will cost approximately $2,000.
We are recommending they produce decent content, like a video, an infographic based on data that is exclusively theirs and seed this with bloggers / real world publications / trade press / etc.
The client is struggling to make a decision because he's caught between two SEO's with different approaches. He doesn't have the budget for both. He's scared of losing his position in the SERPs.
So, I said I'd get some votes from other SEO's. Which would you recommend?
Option 1
- 1,000's of links
- on 4 domains
Option 2
- Create link bait
- Seed using social media
GO!
-
If you're not providing at least some of both of those services for your potential client you will be doing ineffective SEO and somewhat of a disservice to them. The link building efforts should support quality content. It will help with the dissemination. To me spending all your money on content would be like buying a car but not spending any money on gas.
-
No. 2
Produce Great content - I would suggest... take a topic - a crucial one - on which ur target audience really needs help.
Make a full strategy around producing 4 pieces of content to comprehensively cover the topic so that everyone really understands it.
Hire a pro - a professor, doctor etc who really knows the topic and is actually well known for it.
The 4 content items are
1. An article (SEO optimization is best on articles)
2. White-paper
3. Video - this could be Q&A interview with the same expert who has produced the content OR it could be a teaching video for the topic
4. Infographic
Finally.. once you got it all... ensure you market the whole package and seed it every where as a whole package.
And now... just spend $200 (out of the initial $2000 budget) to ask and get 3-4 top bloggers with the biggest and most relevant following to write a post on the content package OR give 2 anchor text links to the page where u will host the content.
Hope this has been helpful.
Regards,
Talha
-
Absolutely - Content - that's what the whole idea of having the site should be in the first place - you have something that attracts others.
If it's the E-commerce site - articles about specific products, if it's a Blog - you know already what you want it to contain. Links generated this way will last longer and will be constantly expanding - meaning every so often someone will place a link to your article somewhere else. Have a look at how many links you can find in the threads posted in this forum - most of them to the Google resources, but still - if it was a forum about something else you'd find a different ones.
I've never spent a penny on links and I do have really good results by just posting new articles of interest and tutorials.
What you could also do is to create the RSS feed for all these articles and submit them to the RSS directories - that is if you want to generate some links. Every time the RSS feed is updated (either dynamically from the database or manually) the RSS directory displays the new link automatically.
I hope this helps.
-
Good idea to keep some budget back for Stumble Upon ads... Not really got a great deal of experience here, but they should be useful to get the social sharing started.
-
Need a button for 'two thumbs up' EGOL!
That's a more comprehensive answer than we'd have hoped for.
To answer the questions, the client is keen to generate the content. We've had some ideas that we think will get knocked for six (if you don't mind me changing your baseball to a cricket ball) and we're looking to help them identify the audience that will share it.
But, seeing it set out so simply, it's a great reminder that we really need to do ALL THREE wonderfully, to get it right.
Brilliant EGOL, thanks so much.
-
I would do the same as EGOL.
If I did go the infographic route I would keep some money back for stumble upon ads and adwords to try and get the social signals going.
-
Just like Egol said, it is all about engaging your audience:
1. You can create the content that is good for SEO, but will it drive traffic?
2. Is you audience more opened to video or articles? Or maybe webinars, infographics, etc. etc.
First of all, I would check for what my audience is looking for, what is that really makes them take action and then try to work out with the budget part and plan the creations strategy.
Gr.,
Istvan
-
If I had the $2000 I would spend all of it on content... and if I had a steady stream of $2000 / month I would spend ALL of it that way.
Would I do it if I were your client? I don't know. It depends on three things....
-
Who will be making this content? Most people can't make successful content. At least, that's my opinion.
-
Do you have content ideas that will hit a homerun?
-
Do you have an audience who will engage with that content? (share it widely)
Do you have ALL THREE of these? If you fail in any one of them then you wasted $2000.
To be fair, you need certain things in place for paid links to succeed. Those things vary by niche but are mainly based upon what is on your site and how effective it is at converting visitors into money. Much more complex, in my opinion, but easier to pull off.
-
-
Number 2 if done correctly.
And if your client still doesn't see sense - email them this: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66736
-
Well,once again I come up with the same issue: please forget about SEO companies who tell buying thousands of incompetent link in order to rank higher.
Instead I would go on your idea, create something that is really helpful for their possible clients, their visitors. Go try to create some video series, start blogging, be there on social networks and respond to their inquiries.
In long term the results will pay out.
I hope you can convince your clients.
Good luck!
Istvan
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to promote website/blog on FB, Twitter, Pinterest etc?
Kindly provide me the guide link for FB, Twitter, Pinterest and other important social media websites to learn how to promote website/blog on them
Social Media | | bondhoward0 -
Link Google Business page and Google Plus fanpage ?
Hello ! I'm strugling with a stupid issue. I have for my company: A website A google page A google entreprise / place page A youtube page They are all Google services so does anyone know if there is a way to link all of them together ? I know it's possible for youtube and Google page, but let me know google was smart enough to let us link our places.google.com and google + Tks a lot !
Social Media | | AymanH0 -
Social Icons Link to Inner Pages
We have the social icons (facebook, twitter, youtube etc) in the footer of our homepage linked to inner pages instead of our actual social accounts. So, if you click on the facebook icon you go to one of our inner pages talking about our facebook profile and why to like us on facebook. Then on this inner page you can get to our facebook profile. We do this so we can pass on PR juice from our homepage to our inner page, and not lose it right off our front page. Is this a good idea? Or does it just confuse users? Most people think when they click on a facebook icon they will go to an actual facebook profile. Here is my homepage, http://www.buyautoparts.com/ click on the icons on the footer and let me know your thoughts.
Social Media | | joebuilder0 -
How does Google handle URL shortening, do they pass link juice?
When I'm Social Book marking my websites I use a url shortening service such as bitly.com or onlywire.com. Do these services transfer link juice in the same ways as a direct link would do?
Social Media | | iansellman0 -
Any developers (php/wordpress) out there? Quick question.
This question is directly related to SEO, but I wanted to see if there was any wordpress / php pro's out there who wouldn't mind helping me with a few quick things. The biggest one is I'm trying to move this facebook like button from where it is to the line of sharers above it. The sharers are being put in by the digg digg plug in, and the facebook button is being put in by the facebook plug in. You can see it on my site, or on this plug in. Thanks! gEOa
Social Media | | NoahsDad0 -
Ways to get the most out of your content/blog posts?
I've been working on posting more content on my blog and now I need a workflow to help me get more exposure on my posts. Currently this is what I'm doing: 1- Write Post 2- Add it to my favorites in Stumbled Upon 3- Post it to Facebook 4- Pin it in Pinterest I would love some more ideas. My goal at this point is to gain greater web exposure. I would love to be they type of blog others actively follow.
Social Media | | continuumphoto0 -
How long until Social Spam achieves the same notoriety/problem as Link Spam used to be
What are people's thoughts on whether or not social spam will become a major problem soon, just like forum profile/blog comment spam, etc, and what do you think the search engines will do about companies that are blatantly gaming the social signals game I.E. since social proof seems to be google's answer to combating anchor text manipulation and content farms, what do you think will be google's answer to combating the rampant social spam that will surely overtake us.
Social Media | | ilyaelbert0 -
Hoping someone could take some time to give me some feedback / advice. Thanks!
Hey guys, I want to give you a bit of background to help you understand what I'm trying to do, and the motivation why. I understand that there are a variety of opinions and beliefs regarding what I'm trying to do online, and I hope this post doesn't turn into a list of everyone's views, or a place for someone to say mean / disrespectful things regarding what I'm doing. I feel like this group is a professional one, so I don't think any of what I've mentioned above will be a problem. Last year we were surprised to learn (in the delivery room) that our first child was born with Down syndrome. Not having any interaction with anyone with Down syndrome I had no idea what my new life was going to be like and set out to find some information online (videos, blogs, etc.) I was surprised to learn that there isn't much quality content out there. Much of the information is outdated, cheesy, lame, etc...In fact many of the videos that I found by searching online about Down syndrome were by people making fun of those born with Down syndrome (comedians, etc.) Very few of them gave me any sort of idea what the future over our family was going to be like. A few months went by, I met many many parents and others who personally knew someone with Down syndrome whose lives have been greatly enriched by their interaction. In addition to that I realized that our life was much more normal than I could have ever imagined. In addition I released that there have been tremendous medical advances in the last two decades and today children born with Down syndrome can attend regular classes, attend college, get married, have jobs, and live productive life's. They no longer ride "short buses", forced to stay in special needs classes, or destined to live a life in some sort of institution. I was surprised that our son (at 3 weeks old) was going to physical / occupational / speech therapy at such a young age. The idea today is that children born with Down syndrome work hard at a young age to stay ahead of the curve. I couldn't believe the things they had him doing at such a young age. (At just a few months old they had him on a treadmill so he could get a head start on learning to walk! ----> http://noahsdad.com/treadmill/) All of that to say, I decided I wanted to be an online resource to help give people an idea of what life is really like raising a child born with Down syndrome. I do a daily one minute video where I'm creating an online narrative by telling his story every day.
Social Media | | NoahsDad
I have a growing Facebook page (http://facebook.com/noahsdadcom) and twitter account (http://noahsdad.com/) and our blog readership is growing everyday.
I own a lot of good domains, and am trying to figure out the best way to use them to create awareness. I've been trying to read about SEO as much as I can. I've only been going on NoahsDad.com since May and my page rank is 4. (I'm not sure if that really means anything, but just wanted to share it.) All of the SEO info can be a bit overwhelming and I'm not sure I'm doing things the best way. I was wondering if someone would mind taking a look at my site and I'll be happy to give any info you need (info from google webmaster tools / antlytics, etc…).
I think I'm doing all the 'basics." But I'm not sure what I need to be doing to really step it up. I think the tag line / title page for the home page could be changed up, and perhaps doing some different things on my home page. When I first started my idea was to have a few different categories, Noah's Minute (which is where I was going to put my daily video), resources (posts counting helpful info), Noah's Mom, MD (medical posts by my wife who is a doctor), twitter/iPhone photos (I used one of these catigories and excluded it from my home page to post random pictures form twitter).. Not that I'm 6 months into it, I've relaized that it didn't work out the way I thought at first..every post is a Noah's Minute post pretty much (and lots of twitter pictures)…and the Noah's minute posts could be broken down into sub - categories. Or…I could not have a "noah's minute" category and change my catagories to "resources" "therapy" "toys" "how-to's" etc…and break up what I used to call "Noah's Minute" into those categories..if that makes sense. The reason I didn't do that before is that I wanted someone to be able to watch every video in the order they were created to see the whole story..since I'm doing one minute every day, someone could come and watch his story unfold from birth until present day..but I guess you wouldn't really need a category for that…you could just go to the last page of the blog. The key words I'm trying to rank well for (and I know some of these wont't be possible) are: Down syndrome Down syndrome videos Down syndrome facts Down syndrome information Down syndrome Blogs (I actually own the domain downsyndromeblogs.com as well..I wanted to make a list type website where i list out a lot of the good blogs on down syndrome) Down syndrome families Down syndrome pictures Down syndrome toys (I own this domain also…thinking of doing an amazon affliate page or something..) Down syndrome physical therapy Down syndrome occupitonal thearpy Down snydrome speech thearpy Also there are some mis-spelling of these terms that I would like to try to rank for as well..and I'm not sure how to do that in a post without my post looking like I made an error. I know that is a lot of info, but I wanted to lay everything out there. I'll be happy to post any more details that anyone needs to help me out.
Thanks again and I'm looking forward to the feedback. Rick NoahsDad.com UPDATE: I thought I would include a picture for you guys to see what your dealing with...! 🙂 Warning: His cuteness is contiguous! down-syndrome-cute-boy-halloween1.jpg26